There are numerous television channels available for viewing at any particular time. These television channels may contain a variety of programs originating from cable distributors or direct satellite transmissions. The variety of programs complicates the viewer's task in learning what programming is available on a specific channel at a particular time.
A common approach to presenting television programming information is by use of a digital set top box (STB), or as a component of an STB such as a cable decoder, satellite decoder or digital television (DTV) decoder. The set top box presents a menu on a display containing programming information of current and future programs. The program guides typically store between three to seven days of information. In the future, program guides of two weeks to a month may be common place.
An example of a program guide is shown in FIG. 1. As shown, display screen 10 includes program guide 12 with channel panels 16 identifying channels available for viewing. Time panel 14 lists particular times, for example, Thursday with 90 minute increments (e.g. 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM). Program grid 18 lists titles of programs on the identified channels at the listed times.
The channels available may vary depending on the viewer's particular cable system or satellite link, and the service level. Although the viewer may only be interested in certain programs, he or she must nonetheless search through the entire table for programs of interest. Because of the resolution limitations of the display and the viewing distance, the viewer may see, for example, 1.5 hours of programming at a time for six or seven channels.
In order to see different program events on the menu, the viewer may hold a remote control unit including an infrared transmitter for emitting control signals. A directional control keypad on the remote control unit allows the viewer to control movement of a cursor on the programming grid. For example, in order to see events in the future, the viewer may move the cursor to the right. To see events in the past, the viewer may move the cursor to the left. Tiles 20 and 22 indicate to the viewer that the menu continues respectively into the past and into the future. The viewer may also scroll the cursor up or down to see additional channels.
Since the viewer may only scroll forward or backwards in time by 30 minute increments, accessing programming information several days in advance may be very time consuming. For example, displaying the menu six days into the future requires that the viewer scroll for 288 half hour increments. With current technology, it may take over three minutes to access the desired information.
In view of the shortcomings of conventional program guides, improved methods are required for providing more rapid access of future program guide information.